Kevin Pietersen times his innings to perfection

What was the likelihood that we'd start this post with "England won a game!"? It was distinctly likely until we decided on the 'starting with writing about about what we were likely to start with' approach.

Anyway, as we were saying, England won a game! Which was a massive relief more than anything. We're not sure just how much one-day misery we can take. Sport becomes boring when it's predictable and that's the way things were heading.

You'd have to say that Kevin Pietersen's was the only stand-out performance from an England perspective. They bowled adequately and being as they only managed four wickets, it's a surprise that the Windies only scored what they did. England's openers, Strauss and Bell, again did a decent job and we're fairly convinced that they've got it in them to be a useful partnership, although more likely Trescothick will return as opener and Bell will bat at three. But mostly it was Pietersen.

Pietersen hung around a bit, played in a relatively reserved fashion for the majority of his innings and then went for it as the overs ran out. England won, so it's hard to fault him.

There's all sorts of talk about his aggressive approach being the downfall of him when the Ashes come, but we think that that's to undervalue his thinking. He often attacks only to change a fielding side's approach. If he feels in danger at some point, rather than ride it out, he sets out to do something about it himself.

Doubtless, he'll get out through this at some point and the critics will be onto him, but there'll be other occasions where more reactive batsmen would perish and Pietersen's proactive approach will be his salvation. What we'd like to see is him playing aggressively to put the field back and then batting a long, long time.

Kevin Pietersen v Shane Warne

Quite early on yesterday, Shane Warne started bowling round the wicket into the rough at Kevin Pietersen. Perhaps the theory was that Pietersen would get impatient and go for high-risk shots. He didn't.

It's a strange feature of cricket that you can be impressed by someone essentially doing nothing. 'Good leave' is a baffling and hilarious comment to a non-cricket fan, but cricket's a mind game as much as anything. Leaving the ball can show clear thinking and an appreciation of the match situation. It warmed our heart to see Kevin Pietersen spend half an hour kicking the ball away last night.

It said that he knew what he was doing and that he was there for runs - as many as possible. It also said that Shane Warne had pretty much no other idea what to do.

Kevin Pietersen v Glenn McGrath

Occasionally, during a cricket match, there's a passage of play where someone attempts to make some sort of an impact beyond that particular delivery, that over or even the match.

With Test cricket being played over a series, players often talk of having a psychological hold over the opposition. Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have had a psychological hold over England batsmen for as long as we can remember. One good ball, early on in a series, is enough to make the English worry about what's to come.

Bearing this in mind, was it just us, or did Kevin Pietersen try and knock Glenn McGrath out of his career last night? Glenn's first over (not with the new ball, which went to Stuart Clark) went for 4, 0, 4, 0, 4 and 0. It seemed to us that Pietersen was trying to make a statement above and beyond his not being afraid of McGrath. He was implying that McGrath was a liability.

It may be that McGrath's injured, but he only bowled 12 overs yesterday; he didn't get the new ball; and nor did he get a wicket. It's certainly not his pitch, but that didn't used to matter. It will be intriguing to see how he fights back.

You can say that it's just one bad day for McGrath, but Glenn McGrath NEVER used to have bad days. Especially against England.

Kevin Pietersen v Shane Warne: A lesson unlearnt

Remember this post about how well Kevin Pietersen played Shane Warne in the first innings in Adelaide?

We were impressed with how Pietersen controlled himself and padded the ball away. In his second innings, with England en route to a catastrophic defeat, Warne pitched his first ball to Pietersen outside leg-stump into the rough. Pietersen tried to sweep it and got bowled.

Pillock.

Who should replace Kevin Pietersen?

KP's injured. Don't worry, he should have recovered by the World Cup. Glenn McGrath hit him in the ribs. Ordinarily, being hit by a Glenn McGrath medium-pace special wouldn't inflict much damage, but Kevin Pietersen was advancing on it like a puma. A puma with a bat. And a helmet...

The obvious choice to replace him would be Rob Key, but assuming that England's selectors pay more attention to his indifferent one-day record than his ability to light up the world like ten blazing suns becoming supernovae, who's the more likely candidate?

In one of the least exciting moves imaginable, we'd go for Ed Joyce. Other candidates are Owais Shah, who the selectors don't seem overly keen on and for an outside bet, what about Mal Loye?

Theoretically, Mal Loye would make a decent replacement for Pietersen. He's a fantastic, aggressive one-day batsman with bags of experience who knows his game inside out. 'Knowing your game' is key these days, even though it's always cricket and therefore isn't rare knowledge.

Our reservation with Mal Loye and indeed with virtually all the prospective candidates is that he's never played in a particularly pressured environment. Say what you like about any county match, there isn't a single situation that comes close to international cricket.

It's one of the great mysteries that England can hand out so many one-day debuts and yet still have so few players with international experience from which to choose.

Kevin Pietersen declares himself unavailable for the England one-day captaincy

We'd like to go on record, throwing our full support behind our number one man, Paul Collingwood.

We always said he was the best man for the England one-day captaincy.

KP for captain

As a long term admirer of Paul Collingwood's, we immediately thought he was the best man to take over the one-day captaincy from Michael Vaughan. Having actually thought about it a bit, we've changed our mind.

It's because of the way that Kevin Pietersen plays the game. We don't mean aggressively or flamboyantly, although those could be positives. We mean how he's a proactive batsman rather than a reactive one.

Rather than adapt his game to the field set by the opposing captain, Kevin Pietersen sets out to change that field through his actions. He plays some odd shots, but they're usually played for a reason. You'll notice that if the field permits, KP plays orthodox strokes.

This all shows that he thinks about the game and that he wants to influence proceedings. That's a captain's role.

He's very clear-headed, he'll be 30 at the time of the next World Cup and what many people overlook is that he's massively, massively professional.

Our only real reservations are how this will work with Michael Vaughan and how the players might react to him. The second point could be a plus though. Despite his self-conscious 'team' behaviour, Pietersen's always been slightly adrift. You can't be 'one of the lads' and captain, so maybe this will solve that particular conundrum.

If Paul Collingwood gets the job, it's no bad thing either. England are fortunate.

Arrogant Kevin Pietersen

Look at him: Jumping around, celebrating his double hundred; playing all those show-off shots; talking himself up. It's almost like he wants to be the best batsman in the world.

What's more, he doesn't seem to care that anyone and everyone can see his ambition. How frightfully, frightfully vulgar.

That's what some people seem to think about Kevin Pietersen. We're more of the opinion: 226 at close to a run-a-ball? Keep doing that and we'll do anything to keep you happy. You want a daily delivery of biltong? Done.

England v West Indies, second Test, day 2 at Headingley
England 570-7 declared (Michael Vaughan 103, Kevin Pietersen 226, Matt Prior 75)
West Indies 146-9 (Ryan Sidebottom 4-42, Liam Plunkett 3-35)
West Indies 22-2 following on

Kevin Pietersen raises expectations

Kevin Pietersen was the only England batsman to score a hundred who we didn't write about during the last Test. Yesterday, both he and Michael Vaughan scored hundreds and we're obviously more inclined to write about Michael Vaughan.

A Kevin Pietersen hundred doesn't seem to be a big deal. If someone else scores a hundred, you expect Kevin Pietersen to score a hundred as well. It's only remarkable when he fails.

Some batsman.

England v West Indies, second Test at Headingley
England 366-5 (Michael Vaughan 103, Kevin Pietersen 130)